Commentary on the Bible: Introduction (No. F000)

Introduction

The Scriptures also known as the Holy Bible are sacred to three major religions of the planet, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam as determined from the Koran. Many of the sects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have attempted to corrupt and distort the Scriptures including the Koran (cf. Commentary on the Koran at Christian Churches of God (ccg.org). It is standard teaching that the Bible is God breathed and the inspired word of God. The Koran teaches this aspect also and that each is dependent upon the Calendar of God (No. 156). This understanding has been corrupted by each of the religions to disguise the various aspects of the religious festivals and their meaning.

In understanding the Bible we must first understand the creation and the purpose for which man was created. The Bible follows a clear and logical plan. It requires however the Holy Spirit as part of the Calling of God to be clearly understood and followed according to the Laws and Calendar of God (cf. also Law of God L1).

Plan of Salvation

The Creation had a specific purpose and that was to perfect the sons of God in the Elohim Host and raise mankind to the level of Elohim as sons of God as stated in Bible prophecy. That was explained in the text of The Elect as Elohim (No. 001) (cf. Appendix 1).

The Plan is now outlined in the text Plan of Salvation (No. 001A). (see below)

The Plan is centred on the Covenant of God (No. 152) and around the Law of God (L1).

The Creation depends on the Law as flowing from the Nature of God. For that reason the Law is immutable as God is immutable.

The structure of the Plan centres on the law in the Calling of mankind and the sequence of the rulership of the creation and the places of the Resurrections in that process.

We also deal with the attempts of Satan to disrupt the calling and limit those in the First Resurrection.

The Plan also deals with the place of Christianity and Islam in the Covenant of God (No. 096C).

Islam and the Koran is also dealt with

at http://ccg.org/islam/quran.html

Time Frame of the Creation

The outline time frame of the creation is laid out in the papers:

Outline Timetable of the Age (No. 272)

Timetable of the World Wars and the Kings of the East (No. 272B);

and in the Rule of the Kings series

Rule of the Kings: Part I: Saul (No. 282A)

Rule of the Kings Part II: David (No. 282B)

Rule of the Kings Part III: Solomon and the Key of David (No. 282C)

Rule of the Kings Part IIIB: Man as the Temple of God (No. 282D)

So also:

Fall of Egypt: Prophecy of Pharaoh’s Broken Arms (No. 036) and Fall of Egypt Part II: Wars of the End (No. 036_2)

The Resurrections

Resurrection of the Dead (No. 143)

Heaven, Hell or the First Resurrection of the Dead (143A)

Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B)

Judgment of the Demons (No. 080)

The City of God

The City of God (No. 180)

It is important that every person professing Christianity and Islam studies these papers and this work.

The Plan of Salvation also involves the following papers:

Israel as the Plan of God (No. 001B)

Israel as the Vineyard of God (No. 001C)

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (No. 001D)

Conversion (No. 001E)

Creation and Healing (No. 001F)

Conversion and Truth (No. 072)

Praying to Christ or Beings other than the Father (No. 111B)

Issue of the Bible Canon

The Canon was issued by God progressively by instruction through a select sequence of Patriarchs and prophets until it was time to send the Messiah as a human to take out the elected called by God and given to Christ (cf. The Bible (No. 164)).

Humans in the Last Days resist the doctrines of the creation and misuse and mistranslate the Bible.

The Plan of Salvation

Before the beginning of the Creation there was only Eloah (Chald. Elahh or Ar. Allah’) the One True God. The name admits of no plurality. He was alone. He decided to create and reproduce Himself in multiplicity. The beginning of the Creation of God was the extension of Himself to incorporate the heavenly Host as Elohim. These were all the sons of God. The creation of the Elohim included Christ as the Beginning of the Creation of God (Rev. 3:14). The assertion that Christ was a coeternal being is a polytheist idolatrous fiction which only entered the Churches of God under Armstrongism in the 20^th century Sardis Church as Trinitarianism came through the Jesuits and through E.G. White in the Laodicean system (cf. False Prophecy (No. 269). The creation of the Elohim is explained in the work How God Became a Family (No. 187).

After the spiritual creation of the Elohim, which was interconnected with, and by, the Holy Spirit (No. 117), the One True God began the physical creation. The One True God created the earth as part of the physical universe and He summoned all the sons of God under their Morning Stars to be present (Job 38:4-7). At that time, all the sons of God had access to the throne and Satan was among them (Job 1:6 and 2:1). The Creation is regulated by the Law of God (L1) which stems from His very nature. It is for that specific reason that the Law of God cannot be done away and will last until heaven and earth pass away, as Christ stated (Mat. 5:18). The issue of creation and the logical necessity of Singularist Causation are covered in the text Creation etc (B5).

The Adamic Creation was made by God in accordance with His Plan of Salvation. Intelligent creation is acknowledged by most scientists as only being possible within a few million years of the mainstream star systems. The Adamic Creation served two purposes. One purpose was to provide the Elohim with a duty of care over the physical creation and to provide a testing ground for them. The other was to enable a progressive system of replacement for the Rebellious or Fallen Host through the Ex Anastasin or “Out Resurrection” (Phil. 3:11) of the First Resurrection (No. 143A) and then a General Resurrection in the Second Resurrection (No. 143B).

The archaeological record shows that the Morning Star placed in charge of this planet spent a deal of time in experimentation with humanoids and other life structures for two purposes. One was to create humanoids that would interrupt and corrupt the planned Adamic Creation and which Azazel or Satan then used to confuse the Human Host with lies regarding that record (cf. Creation v Evolution (B9)). For some reason the earth became tohu and bohu or waste and void and God sent the Elohim to restore the planet and to complete the Adamic system as we see in Genesis Chapter 1. The purpose of the Creation was to create humans so that they would learn and over the sequence they would become Elohim or sons of God as were the other Elohim in the Host (cf. John 10:34-36). In that way we would become coheirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). The process is explained in the Elect as Elohim (No. 001). Through God’s Omniscience He understood that one Third of the Host would rebel and that it would become necessary for one of them to lay down his existence in obedience and become the leader of the creation. That being was one of the elohim we now understand as Jesus Christ. He was determined from before the foundation of the world. So also the replacement elohim of the elect saints in replacement of the demons in the Millennial Government were also selected and determined in the Book of life from before the foundation of the world (cf. also Jer. 1:5).

Each human is selected and placed in the sequence of the Creation as determined by the Omniscience and Omnipotence of God and they are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28-30) and Predestination (No. 296). Evil was allowed to test both Mankind and the Host (cf. The Problem of Evil (No. 118)).

God allowed seven thousand years for that process. Six thousand years were allowed for the working phase under the god of this world who is the Morning Star Azazel or Satan (2Cor. 4:4) (cf. Lucifer: Light Bearer and Morning Star (No. 223)). The limitation was that the Laws of God must be entrusted to the elect patriarchs and prophets and the elect would keep the Laws of God. That was their test and sign. They would then be called and granted the Spirit and allocated to the First Resurrection (No. 143A) in replacement of the demons. Those who taught against the Law and did not keep the Law and the Testimony were rejected as not called and chosen (Isa. 8:20). They would be re-educated later in the Second Resurrection (No. 143B below).

The elect of the First Resurrection then were to become elohim as sons of God and join Christ as the replacement host for the millennial reign of Jesus Christ when he returns to take over the planet as the replacement Morning Star (Rev. Ch. 20). The Millennium was to last for the thousand years, while Satan and the Fallen Host remained in the Pit of Tartaros. At the end of the Millennium they were then to be released and mankind was to be again tested under the demons. Mankind under the demons would again rebel as prophecy states and they would then march against Christ and the elect at Jerusalem. After this last conflict they will all be killed and then resurrected to the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B); and Judgment of the Demons (No. 080). Those humans that do not rebel will be translated and included in the Elohim Host without further training.

Those that are placed in the Great White Throne Judgment for retraining are all those that have ever lived of the Adamic Creation. Everyone that has not kept the Commandments of God and the Faith and Testimony of Christ (Rev. 12:17; 14:12) will not be in the elect. That includes virtually two complete eras of the Churches of God that have not kept the Temple Calendar (No. 156), keeping either Hillel or another abomination. Modern day Judaism and those keeping Hillel and the Babylonian Intercalations have never obeyed God and virtually never kept a Holy Day on the correct days, and a significant portion of the time not even in the correct month (cf. Hillel, Babylonian Intercalations and the Temple Calendar (195C)). The Jews do not have the Oracles of God; the Church of God has them (cf. Oracles of God (No. 184)).

God is not concerned with why you do things. He simply gives you the choice between obedience and keeping the Law or being relegated to the Second Resurrection, when all others are retrained. If you do not keep the Sabbath and the New Moons you are excluded, and, at the return of the Messiah, all those that do not will be killed (Isa. 66:23-24). They will then be sent to the Second Resurrection for retraining. So also everyone on the planet for the Millennium will keep the Feasts or they will get no rain in due season and suffer the plagues of Egypt (Zech. 14:16-19). There is no negotiation. The choice is ours. No one else can save us. Obey, or face the Second Resurrection for retraining. Those that do not obey then, under judgment, will be allowed to die and be cremated in the Lake of Fire, which is the Second Death. They will cease to exist and be brought to mind no more.

Mechanics of the Plan

The Mechanics of the Plan of the Creation is a brilliant and simple process. Each individual is given a Spirit which is the Nephesh of the Bible structure. It is not immortal. When the person dies that spirit goes back to God who gave it until we are resurrected in the appropriate time according to the Omniscience of God. It is explained more fully in the text The Soul (No. 092). It is the Plan of God that the spirit of the Nephesh is combined with the Holy Spirit (No. 117) above in the final phase so that the individual becomes one with God and the Host through the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the Nephesh or Spirit of Man is simply a mortal blue print that absorbs the Holy Spirit, which activates it. It is able to become a new being on the next phase of spiritual existence in a new dimension. In that phase, we will all become elohim or theoi as sons of God as Christ stated in John 10:34-36.

It is in this process that we become Consubstantial with the Father (No. 081). The process occurs through the grace of God but it does not obviate the necessity for compliance with the Law of God (L1), which proceeds from His Nature, as is explained in the text The Relationship Between Salvation by Grace and the Law of God (No. 082). In this way we become as one with the Host as Spiritual Sons of God and we rule the Universe, with God, from the Holy Land as the City of God (No. 180).

Sequence of the Plan

The Creation was planned and executed over an extended time period and was intended to enable the future Elohim to be created and then become responsible beings learning to become Elohim and to care for the Creation and extend it as part of the God family. The human creation was inserted in that Creation at the appropriate time. It was known that man would sin and that a plan of salvation of the Creation was necessary to complete the plan.

The Plan of Salvation was divided into seven sections of a thousand years over three phases of two thousand year periods. This was to be a working example under the Morning Star Azazel, who became Satan as the accuser, and his section of the Host. The “working” phases would then be followed by the Elect Saints of the patriarchs and prophets and the church that was established by the Messiah for the third phase, and which kept the Commandments of God and the Faith and Testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17; 14:12). That would be the First Resurrection of the Dead (No. 143A) above.

The plan was represented by the week in the division of time with the Six Working Days and the Seventh Day Sabbath of God. The New Moons and Holy Days and the Feasts represented in themselves the activities of the Plan of God. The Calendar was kept from Adam and the Patriarchs for the entire creation. The more detailed explanation of the three phases is explained in the texts:

Rule of the Kings Part I: Saul (No. 282A);

Rule of the Kings Part II: David (No. 282B);

Rule of the Kings Part III: Solomon and the Key of David (No. 282C).

The plan was also symbolised in the Construction of the Temple of God at Jerusalem which is explained in the paper: Rule of the Kings Part IIIB: Man as the Temple of God (No. 282D).

At the end of the six thousand years the world is in such sin and turmoil through false religion and breaches of the Law of God that the Wars of the End commence. This is explained in the sequence from the warnings of the last Church system and the prophet foretold by God in Jeremiah 4:15, 16-27:

Gideon’s Force and the Last Days (No. 022);

Warning of the Last Days (No. 044);

Preparing for the Wars of the End (No. 141A_2);

Wars of the Last Days and the Vials of the Wrath of God (No. 141B).

Satan had spent the entire period corrupting mankind to destroy them as we see below.

The world erupts into the wars of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets:

Wars of the End Part I: Wars of Amalek (No. 141C).

Then the Witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, are sent as promised by God (see also Mal. 4:5)

Wars of the End Part II: 1260 Days of the Witnesses (No. 141D).

God then sends the Messiah as is foretold and for which the Churches of God have waited 2000 years:

Wars of the End Part III: Armageddon and the Vials of the Wrath of God (No. 141E).

The world is so corrupt and in such sin they will not accept correction. They kill the Witnesses Enoch and Elijah and then they march against Christ:

Wars of the End Part IIIB: War Against Christ (No. 141E_2).

Christ then proceeds to subjugate all nations and stamp out all False Religion on the planet and the systems of false government and sin that proceed from those false systems:

Wars of the End Part IV: The End of False Religion (No. 141F).

After the return of the Messiah and the First Resurrection, the demons are placed in the Pit of Tartaros for a thousand years over what is then a final phase comprised of the seventh thousand year period of the Messianic Sabbath. The Elect Saints as Spirit beings then rule the world with Christ over the thousand years and the demons are later judged against their conduct by Christ and the elect. See Wars of the End Part IVB: End of the Age (No. 141F_2).

The demons are reduced to humans and then placed with the Human Host that they corrupted for re-education in the final training period of the Second Resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgement (No. 143B). All the false ministers and corrupted priests, imams, and religious leaders following Satan’s systems and corruption, as we see below in the section on false religion, will be placed in that system and retrained. Many will have to be given short term protection for their own safety; although the world will be able to see these figures after the period of necessary protection as we see in Isaiah Chapter 14 and Ezekiel Chapter 28 (cf. Judgment of the Demons (No. 080)).

From the beginning of the millennial system, for the thousand years, we begin the restoration of the planet:

Wars of the End Part V: Restoration for the Millennium (No. 141G).

Then the millennial system begins and we commence the training of the planet for the implementation of the Plan of God which is to enable mankind to take their true purpose in the Plan of God. That purpose is to become Elohim as gods, as coheirs with Christ: Wars of the End Part VB: Preparing the Elohim (No. 141H).

We will now look at how Satan did his absolute best (or worst) to destroy the Plan of God and demonstrate that mankind was not a fit and proper subject to become Elohim.

Satan’s Attack on the Creation of Mankind

Satan tried to destroy mankind in a number of ways. He first interfered by having Adam and Eve sin and thus changed their status, and by that sin death entered the world:

Doctrine of Original Sin Part I: The Garden of Eden (No. 246).

He then attacked the patriarchs and the genetic structure of mankind. Those attacks were so extensive and so successful that God eliminated the corrupted creation in the Flood. Only those whose structure was not corrupted will be resurrected and dealt with in either resurrection:

Doctrine of Original Sin Part II: The Generations of Adam (No. 248).

The Law of God (L1) and the Covenant of God (No. 152) were given to the world through the patriarchs from Adam to Noah and then reinforced through the line of Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob and to Moses and Aaron at Sinai and on to the prophets. Messiah was to be drawn from that line as the New Morning Star (Num. 24:17).

Satan’s reasoning was simple. If the Covenant was reliant on the elect keeping the Law of God and the Faith and Testimony of Messiah as it was unfolded, then all he had to do was to lure the human creation into sin and separate them from the Law of God. That was based on the great lie given to Adam and Eve which caused their sin in the first instance. That lie was: “you shall not surely die” (cf. also The Doctrine of Balaam and Balaam’s Prophecy (No. 204)).

He developed this lie, and established the doctrine of the Immortal Soul. That doctrine sought to separate humans from the idea and fact that they were totally reliant on God for their resurrection and eternal life.

Satan and False Religion

He then developed the idea among humans that when they died they went to heaven. This idea was developed among the Pagans and Gnostics through the Sun and Mystery Cults which established a system in direct opposition to the Laws of God and God’s Calendar (No. 156) and the Plan of Salvation He has set up under that system. As God revealed His system through the patriarchs and prophets, Satan set up the counter system and false doctrine to deceive mankind and prevent their salvation.

The two major systems were in Babylon and in Egypt using the Sun and Mystery Cults (cf. Mysticism (B7_A)). These aspects are also examined in Moses and the Gods of Egypt (No. 105) and The Golden Calf (No. 222).

The false system at Babylon saw the direct intervention of God with the destruction of Babel and the alteration of the human system through a process which confused their speech and saw their dispersal to distant lands.

This process then enabled the next weapon in Satan’s arsenal which was the seal that followed False Religion which was War and from that conflict came Conquest and then Pestilence and Death. This aspect is covered in the text The Seven Seals (No. 140) which also embraces the Persecution attendant on False Religion. See also The Seven Trumpets (No. 141).

The false doctrine of the Immortal Soul came from the Greeks as a philosophical process. This doctrine is covered in the text The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul (No. B6). The doctrine was then modified from Greek Philosophy to infect early Christianity as explained in the Development of the Neo-Platonist Model (No. 017).

Idolatry was established in Christianity through the Sun and Mystery Cults in the worship of Mithras and Attis in the west, Adonis in the east, and Osiris at Alexandria. Their doctrines were inserted by Binitarian and Trinitarian Misrepresentation of the Early Theology of the Godhead (No. 127B). So also was it by the doctrines that are explained in The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235).

Satan established Gnostic heresy very early in the church as we see in the text Heresy in the Apostolic Church (No. 089). One heresy followed another in the churches until they were totally corrupt.

The Gnostic doctrines have been established as a parasite form in the three separate systems of Judaism, Paganism and Christianity and through Baal worship of the Sun Cults.

The Mother Goddess system became a worldwide corruption of all faiths and especially Christianity. It was almost always followed by Antinomianism. Even in Judaism it was followed by traditions that rendered the law and the calendar invalid and corrupt to this day.

The Antinomian corruption is covered in the texts:

Alleged Bible Contradictions (No. 164B)

Antinomian Destruction of Christianity by Misuse of Scripture (No. 164C);

Antinomian Attacks on the Law of God (No. 164D);

Antinomian Denial of Baptism (No. 164E).

The Law and the Covenant were tied together and so Antinomianism was used to destroy both:

Antinomian Attacks on the Covenant of God (No. 096D).

The law was given in distinction in preparation for the Messiah (cf. Distinction in the Law (No. 096)).

Messiah gave the Law to the patriarchs from Adam to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and again to Moses and Aaron at Sinai (cf. The Descendants of Abraham series at Nos. 212A, 212B, 212C, 212D, 212E, 212F, 212G,

212H, and 212i). The papers on the Law and the Covenant especially here show the famines for rebellion (212H) and The Last Great Famine (No. 212i) ahead of us.

The Law and the Testimony came through the prophets to Christ in the Incarnation. That was the Second Statement of the Covenant to Israel (cf. First and Second Statements of the Covenant (No. 096B) and Christianity and Islam in the Covenant of God (No. 096C)).

Satan used that distinction to lie to the people and force the claim that Christ issued a new law different from the old law that was removed or “done away”. That lie and the attacks on baptism and the Law and the Testimony has cut a massive amount of people from the First Resurrection and placed them in the Second Resurrection.

Satan used the natural inclination of man to disobedience and stiff necked rebellion and indolence such that they will believe anything they are told that will save them inconvenience or discomfort, and their capacity to murder one another simply added to the impetus.

Satan attacked the Church wherever it was established. The distribution is shown in the texts No.122, 122A, 122B, 122C, and 122D.

The persecution and signs of the Churches of God are shown in the text Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170).

This persecution has been very successful and is now reaching its final phase as explained in the papers on WWIII: Empire of the Beast (No. 299A); WWIII Part II: The Whore and the Beast (No. 299B) and The Last Pope: Examining Nostradamus and Malachy (No. 288).

The establishment of the church in Arabia and the collapse into Hadithic and Shia Islam etc. are examined in the Commentary on the Koran at Q001, Q001A, Q001B, Q001C, Q001D, and QS and the Surahs and Appendices as listed at http://ccg.org/islam/quran.html.

That Satan has been so successful is a testament to the monumental stupidity and gullibility of mankind. As part of the great lie “you shall not surely die” the harlot daughters of the whore invented the lie of the Rapture in Protestantism. The attacks on the structure of the Advent and millennial system are covered in the text The Millennium and the Rapture (No. 095). The Trinitarian forgeries in the Receptus and the KJV are simply breathtaking (cf. 164 series above)

So also Satan penetrated the Churches of God in the Sardis and Laodicean systems with the Rapture doctrines and the Ditheist/Binitarian and Trinitarian doctrines and also other false doctrines such as the Place of Safety (No. 194). In order to keep the sheep in line Armstrong invented the totally false doctrine of the Third Resurrection as explained in the text Fallacy of the Third Resurrection (No. 166) although many of the brighter people are seeing through the doctrine for what it is.

Soon we will have the Witnesses and then the Messiah, and the false ministry that rend the sheep will be destroyed. See also From Seals and Trumpets to the Vials of the Wrath of God and the Millennium (No. 141A).

Re: creation (cf. 160)

The significance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is central to the Faith. It is the central issue of the New Testament and is the culmination of the sacrificial system and all that it represented.

One extraordinary myth that has developed from the doctrinal issues surrounding the Godhead and the place of Christ within that structure is that if Christ were not God and an eternally existing, uncreated being, then his sacrifice would be inadequate to reconcile mankind to God. One is then led to the question: “By what scriptural authority is such a claim made?” No Scripture supports this claim and indeed it will be shown that the opposite is true. How then is such a claim made or advanced? The answer lies in the inadequacy of Greek philosophy and the misapprehension of the nature of the Bible system and the purpose of the creation.

This whole question then must be answered in two parts. One part is that dealing with the purpose of the creation, the other part is that dealing with the Bible system. In that issue the inadequacies of Greek philosophy must be exposed by comparison with biblical texts.

The Creation

The Creation is first explained in Genesis chapter 1. It is assumed by most people, from this text, that this is the explanation of the beginning of the creation. That assumption is very sweeping. It shows a failure to comprehend the message of the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth that are mentioned in Genesis 2:4. The Book of Genesis shows the divisions of the structure.

So the creation was in generations. There were sequences of the creation, and verses 1-3 in Genesis chapter 2 deal with the generations of the Heavens and the Earth.

Generation 1

The first generation is divided into two structures: the beginning and the pre-beginning.

The pre-beginning is that period before God commenced to create. In that period there was One True God (Jn. 17:3; 1Jn. 5:20) who alone is immortal (1Tim. 6:16). Nothing else existed. He was alone and eternal. He was omniscient in that He knew all true propositions and He was omnipotent in that He was able to do all that it is logically possible to do. His intrinsic immortality meant He could not die. He was perfectly good (Mk. 10:18). He was the Alpha and He is the Omega (Rev. 1:8).

Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (RSV)

The KJV renders the text

Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (KJV)

The words ho theos or The God are deliberately omitted from the English text (see Marshall’s Greek-English Interlinear). This is in order to attempt to confuse God with Christ or to convey the impression that it is Christ speaking which it plainly is not from the text of Revelation 1:1. That text plainly says that the Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him.

Only God is the Alpha and the Omega. This sense is that He alone was the first as an immortal being, thus He is Alpha. He is in continuous activity, thus He is and He is to become and He is the Almighty. Thus the Omega, or end result itself, is this Being. The creation is thus centred on this Being and is in itself the end object of its activity. Thus God is creating Himself in an extended sense. We see this from Exodus 3:14.

Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (KJV)

The text here is ‘ehyeh ‘asher ‘ehyeh. The meaning, according to The Companion Bible, is I will be what I will be (or become). God thus stated His activity and intention. There are two actions here. Exodus 3:12 shows that the Being speaking to Moses states the intended worship of The God Himself (eth ha ‘Elohim) on the mountain. This Being was part of the activity of God under direction.

The God was Eloah, which is in the singular and admits of no plurality and as such is the object of worship of all subsequent activity (Deut. 5:6-7; 6:4 (elohenu); Ezra 4:24 to 7:28). The first activity of Eloah was to generate the elohim (Gen. 1:1). These are the sons of God, the God Most High (Deut. 32:8 (RSV); Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:4-7). The elohim were the beginning of the activities of the will of The Most High God, Eloah or ‘Elahh (in the Chaldean) (Dan. 4:2).

Revelation 4:9-11 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, ¹¹"Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created." (RSV)

The elohim constitute the Council of the Elders whose composition is noted in Revelation chapters 4 and 5. Christ is one of these Beings (Rev. 5:6). They are mentioned in the Psalms repeatedly (Ps. 82:1; 82:6; 86:8; 95:3; 96:4; 97:7; 97:9; 135:5; 136:2; 138:1). They are the means of the activities of the will of God. Christ was anointed above his partners by his Elohim, or God (Ps. 45:6-7; Heb. 1:8-9), but this was a subsequent event, as we will see. God existed alone as Eloah before He extended into a plurality by creating or generating the elohim as Sons of God.

The spiritual creation is logically prior to the physical creation.

Hebrews 11:3By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. (RSV)

The text reads that the ages were adjusted by a word (remati) of God. The ages were adjusted so that the thing that became or was created emerged from that which was not seen or not physical. If the physical creation emerged from the spiritual does this mean that God as Spirit is in all matter? No, it does not mean that. Such an assertion is animism. The created spiritual is the basis of the created physical. Spirit is not necessarily an extension of God unless conferred by the Holy Spirit as the power of God.

The beginning referred to in the Bible is thus an activity of the creation of God, which is adjusted from His prior spiritual activity and creation. That activity involved the creation of the elohim, which was His first act or reproduction. The spiritual creation thus commenced and from that activity of God as Eloah, the elohim (a plural word derived from Eloah) then began dealing with the physical creation. We understand that Christ was one of these elohim and was instrumental in this activity of creation.

John 1:1 is often quoted by Trinitarians and Binitarians to defend the eternity of Christ because they have no answer for the multiplicity of texts that show that there is only One True God (Jn. 17:3; 1Jn. 5:20) who alone is immortal (1Tim. 6:16) and who gave Christ to have life in himself (Jn. 5:26).

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (RSV)

The simple matter of this text is that it is mistranslated by Trinitarians, as the Jehovah Witnesses (JWs) have consistently pointed out. However, the order of the JW translation is an attempt to follow the KJV rather than the literal text. The text reads:

En arche en ho logos,

In (the) beginning was the word

kai ho logos en pros ton theon,

and the word was with [the] God

kai theos en ho logos

and [a] god was the word

[en pros ton theon should read “was towards (the) God” meaning with in the sense of service].

It should be noted that the term ton theon or the accusative case identification of God is used only of the Father as in John 1:18. The Father is thus The God. Christ as logos is here referred to in the nominative case. There is no indefinite article in the Greek. It must be inferred from the sense of the passage (see Marshall’s Interlinear, Intro., p. ix). Here there is a clear distinction between The God and that god which was the logos. This is a reflection of Psalm 45:6-7 and Hebrews 1:8-9.

Thus the JW text should perhaps read and a god was the word not and the word was a god, but that is hardly a serious problem. The sense is that only The God existed before the beginning of time in abiding perpetuity. Only He is immortal (1Tim. 6:16). Christ is here stated to be in the beginning with God. Hence, he was the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14). John explains the sense of John 1:1 in John 1:14-18; 1John 5 (esp. v. 20); and Revelation 3:14.

The beginning is divided into phases we understand to be concerned with the creation of the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 to 2:7

¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Elohim (Heb. accent athnach emphasising God; see The Companion Bible, fn. to v. 1) is here creating in accordance with the will of Eloah as the Alpha, the singularity. This is The Elohim or God as Creator acting in unison as the head of an order of beings (Gen. 1:1 to 2:3). This is the beginning of the material creation. We can only infer attributes of the sub-structure of matter, as it cannot at present be measured. We know much about causal theory and also of the directionality of time. These are complicated philosophical and scientific issues. They are the subjects of a separate work. It is simply enough to say here that causation is singularist and that singularity is Eloah and time is directional as was demonstrated in the paper Creation: From Anthropomorphic Theology to Theomorphic Anthropology (No. B5). In that work it was demonstrated that it is impossible for there to be absolute creation. In that, if God did not possess His attributes originally it would be impossible for Him to have created them. Thus He must provide those attributes to those beings that appear in the order of His creation. Hence, God must confer attributes on Christ and the other sons or heirs, such as immortality, omniscience, omnipotence, perfect goodness, and perfect love. This must be done by a mechanism which confers His nature and power. This can only be the Holy Spirit. This seems to be the case from Romans 1:4, but we will examine that matter later.

The creation of the physical structure is in two parts. Peter explains this by his reference to the world that then was (2Pet. 3:5-6); and to the Heavens and the Earth that are now (2Pet. 3:7). It might be argued that Peter was referring only to the pre- and post-Flood periods, but this is an assumption. Nor does such an assumption imply that the Heavens that then were, were not further divided by catastrophe. Indeed, it might be assumed that such a notion was implicit in the argument of the division of the ages. It is certain that the world is ancient and contained great diversity of beings in stages which were wiped out by catastrophe.

The world that then was had purpose and intent but was destroyed. The purpose of the creation can only be inferred from the Bible notations and what we know of science. Archaeology tells us that there was an extensive creation, which was essentially non-mammalian and contained no humans or humanoids. This creation was abruptly discontinuous. The humanoid structure appears in the Earth’s history recently. Approximately 100,000 years ago a humanoid form appeared on the planet and gave way to another unrelated species, which appeared some 40,000 years ago. Modern science now holds that man had a common DNA ancestry from a source somewhere in the Africa/Middle East system and that they have been in error as to the age and diversity of humanoids in previous theories. They acknowledge a common ancestral stock and attribute that commonality to the humanoids over that 100,000-year period. This will later be seen to be in error. It will come to be seen that the humanoids that preceded the adamic structure were not related and of another purpose. This purpose can be reconstructed from the Bible. However, the creation of these humanoids must have been of such a purpose that the DNA interaction of these species was made possible. This is dealt with in the paper The Nephilim (No. 154) and also Creation, ibid.

The end of the Heavens that then were

The first creation appears to have been ruined from causes that we can only try to reconstruct. The second destruction in the Flood is the only record we possess. The first must be deduced.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

One concept here is that the creation came to be without form and void or tohu and bohu. The terms tohu and bohu do not require that there be no life, as the terms are again used in Jeremiah 4:23, but the Lord clearly states He will not make a full end in verse 27. This is the recreation theory that assumes a recent re-creation.

It might also be argued that the waters were the primordial waters of the Near Eastern myths, or, it might be argued that the waters were the equivalent of the big bang creation of matter and the expanding Universe from a specific point and no other, from time space volume selection of 10 to the 10th to the 123rd power (see R. Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind). This specific point can be held to be the point of creation from the non-physical to the physical. From relativity theory we can infer that energy, mass etc., are equivalent expressions of a single fundamental essence. We would call this substance Spirit. Spirit cannot be seen. Thus the Bible is understood when it says that the things that are seen are made from the things that are not seen.

The distinction in matter probably arises from the arrangement of spiritual energy in groupings and rotations at varying speeds, which determine the combination and structure of the sub-atomic and the atomic particles. Splitting the atomic structure releases energy, which is an expression of the Spirit. Spirit can also enter matter by interacting with its particles.

From the texts, within this theory, we can see that the destruction has to take place in the order of the explanation of the subsequent activity of Genesis. It seems that discontinuity or a break in the activity of the creation can be inferred here in the text more readily than elsewhere. There is no doubt, however, that discontinuity or ruin in the physical creation is a biblical position and cannot be denied from the point of view of faith. The creation narrative here seems to be concerned with the earth system rather than generally in the Universe, but it may be from the general to the particular; in other words from the Universe to the planetary system.

The Heavens and the Earth which now are: The Six Day Creation

Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The term used in verse 3 is not the verb to be and thus it is let it become light (see fn. to v. 3 in The Companion Bible). Thus we are setting the precondition for the creation of systems of the fourth day.

Genesis 1:6-31 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ⁷And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. ⁸And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. ⁹And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. ¹⁰And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. ¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.¹²And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ¹³And the evening and the morning were the third day.¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: ¹⁵And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. ¹⁶And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. ¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. ²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. ²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. ²⁴And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. ²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ²⁹And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1-7 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. ⁴These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. ⁶But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. ⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (KJV)

It is not critical whether this is a re-creation story or a generalised occurrence. This process is a good explanation from what we know of modern science of the process of creation from the general distribution of the Universe and the formulation of matter. Man was thus created at the end of the sequence and appears to be the object of the physical creation. Indeed, modern science seems to be moving to the conclusion that intelligent man is only possible within the short space of a few million years of the life of the main star systems. Thus the planet has a finite purpose and the physical creation is not the object of the creation in itself.

The spiritual creation was set in order by the elohim, and Christ was the central spiritual entity in this process.

Colossians 1:15-16 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; ¹⁶for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him. (RSV)

Christ was thus made an image of the invisible God. He was the prototokos or first-begotten of every creature (KJV).

Colossians 1:15-16 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: ¹⁶For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (KJV)

Note here that Christ as the first-begotten of every creature (ktiseos from ktisma) was the ektisthe or manufacturer or maker of the organisational structure. He made the thrones and the lordships, the dominions, principalities and authorities. These are not spiritual beings. They are administrations. He did not make the elohim. He structured their dominions and their order. He himself was faithful to He who made (SGD 4160 poeio) him (Heb. 3:2). Christ was appointed (SGD etheken from theoo to place (upright)) heir of all things (Heb. 1:2).

The word in Hebrews 3:2 is made and is only translated as appointed in this case to avoid the obvious implications for Trinitarians. The correct word for appointed is not used.

The question is then posed by Trinitarians or Binitarians: “Why would God make Christ and the other entities called elohim or the angelic Host (sons of God (Dan. 3:25); Chald. elahin, whose dwelling is not with men (Dan. 2:11; 4:8)), and then bother to make a human species?” What purpose is served by these two aspects of creation?

It can be observed that this form of reasoning raises the same issues for the concept of the angelic Host and then Christ as another, second, co-eternal deity for Binitarians. Binitarian is a polite term for a Ditheist in a Christian guise. However, they are not Monotheists and are no different philosophically from other Ditheists, except for the activity of the deities, such as in Zoroastrianism. In the case of Trinitarians, we are presented with an even more mysterious problem, which is contrary to reason and is defended by appeal to mystery. Trinitarians have also adopted the Mystery cults’ position in relation to the ascent to Heaven or descent to Hell on death rather than the physical resurrection of the Bible. This aspect of Gnosticism and the Mysteries was specifically condemned by Justin Martyr and the early Church. It was the way one discerned Christians from non-Christian imposters.

Binitarians (especially those adopting the views expressed by Herbert Armstrong in his last years as expressed in the Mystery of the Ages) have the view that the angels are merely minders of the system. Perhaps it is more appropriately termed the Great Garden Theory of the Universe, where it was messed up by rebellion, and God then created these humans to replace these rebellious angels. Christ was a second God, co-eternal with the Father but somehow willingly inferior. The human elect are going to become superior and of a different order and type to the angelic Host. The angels can never become elohim, which is a plural word, which applies to God as a family but only to two entities at present. This view simply ignores the entire structure of the Psalms and the various texts that deal with the elohim. It is seriously biblically incoherent and carries in it imputations against the omniscience and omnipotence of God.

Christ was Israel’s second God but he was not co-eternal. This point has been examined by Alan F. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1977, and also by M. Barker, THE GREAT ANGEL A Study of Israel’s Second God, SPCK, London, 1992. Larry Hurtado, in his work One God One Lord Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism, SCM Press, 1988, attempts to make a case for the Binitarian nature of the early Church. He says:

I submit that the forgoing devotional innovations support my contentions (a) that early Christian Devotion can be accurately described as binitarian in shape, with a prominent place being given to the risen Christ alongside God, and (b) that this binitarian shape is distinctive in the broad and diverse Jewish Monotheistic tradition that was the immediate background of the first Christians, among whom these devotional practices had their beginnings (p. 114).

Hurtado does develop the non-Trinitarian nature of the early Church but fails to correctly deal with the question of the Great Angel as Christ, which Barker attempts to explain within an orthodox framework and fails. However, all more or less show the point that the Great Angel was an elohim. None is so bold as to equate this elohim with The God. Hurtado shows that the Binitarianism is developed concerning the risen Christ and distinctive from and not concerned with his pre-existence in Judaism as the Great Angel.

The structure of the early Church at the very best can only be claimed to be Binitarian from delegation following on from the resurrection (Rom. 1:4) not from the eternal existence of Christ. Christ and the Host were all the product of God’s activity and will.

God is omniscient therefore He knew the outcome of the activities of the rebel Host when they were created. He ordained Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and wrote the names of the elect in the book of life, before the foundation of the world.

Revelation 13:8and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. (RSV)

Thus it was not only known that Christ was to be slain before the world was laid down but also the names of the elect were all known and recorded in the Book of God before the world was formed. That is the extent of the omniscience of God. Christ clearly is not omniscient as there were things he did not know, such as the hour of his return (Mk. 13:32), and also the Revelation which was given to him by God.

Thus God knew that the heavenly Host would rebel and He also knew that Christ would not only have to be sacrificed but also that he would be obedient unto death and so introduce a new group into the category of elohim (Zech. 12:8) as he himself was an elohim at their head.

Philippians 2:5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (RSV)

Christ thus was in the form or the morphe of God. He was an image of God as we are conformed to the image of God through the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). We do this as Christ did by partaking of the divine nature (2Pet. 1:3-4). We are thus co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17; Gal. 3:29; Tit. 3:7; Heb. 1:14; 6:17; 11:9; Jas. 2:5; 1Pet. 3:7). This purpose of God was unchangeable (Heb. 6:17). Christ did not try, as Satan tried (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:14-18), to grasp equality with God. He became a human and was obedient unto death even death on the stake. Christ is thus not co-equal with God and did not seek equality with Him.

We thus see that Christ obeyed God by becoming a human. His sacrifice was an order of the Father to achieve the purpose of the Father, which had been known from the beginning, before the foundation of the world.

The human Host are clearly stated to be the brethren of the angels (Rev. 12:10; 22:9) and the elect will become equal to, as an order of, angels on the resurrection (Lk. 20:36 isaggelos).

Thus the creation is to produce a cohesive whole and Revelation 5 shows that the elect are to become kings and priests over that structure. So then why did not God simply create us all at the same time with the same attributes? Why were there two structures, and what purpose did they serve? The answer is simple.

In a single creation structure there would still have been a rebellion. Satan would still have rebelled even though he was perfect from his creation. The sons of God in both the angelic and human Host had to have free choice or they are simply robots. Christ had to be able to have sinned or he is a robot and there is no judgment of Satan. In all points he was tempted as we are (Heb. 4:15).

The angelic Host had to be given family responsibility. That was done by stewardship of humans and the physical creation. A spiritual being does not have to exercise faith concerning the existence of God but a physical Host does. By interactive testing each element was taught and tried in their respective duties. Christ exercised faith by laying down a spiritual existence and becoming a human totally dependent upon the will and power of his God for life and resurrection to eternal life.

Christ did that for two reasons. The first reason was that he was obedient to his God. The second reason was that as the Angel of Yehovah (see the paper The Angel of YHVH (No. 024)) he was the spiritual leader of Israel and that people and the world were totally dependent upon the selfless devotion of another being to redeem them to God. He was the elohim and angel that redeemed Israel (Gen. 48:15-16).

Genesis 48:15-16 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, ¹⁶The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. (KJV)

This elohim was an Angel. He redeemed Israel both as man and nation. God chose him to do that job because he was to be their High Priest. To lead, we must be willing to lay down our lives for each other. Christ was willing to do that and thus he qualified to become a son of God in power from his resurrection from the dead through the operation of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 1:4).

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